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GOAA Clergy-Laity Congress Resolutions Call for World Peace,End of Poverty

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Rev Fr John Brian

CLERGY-LAITY CONGRESS OF THE GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA APPROVES RESOLUTIONS THAT CALL FOR WORLD PEACE, THE END OF POVERTY, VIOLENCE AGAINST

Message 1 of 1
, Aug 1, 2006

CLERGY-LAITY CONGRESS OF THE GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA APPROVES
RESOLUTIONS THAT CALL FOR WORLD PEACE, THE END OF POVERTY, VIOLENCE AGAINST
CHILDREN, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FOR THE ECUMENICAL
PATRIARCHATE

Nashville, TN - Four significant resolutions were unanimously passed at the
conclusion of the Plenary session of the 38th Biennial Clergy-Laity Congress
of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, which recently met in
Nashville, Tennessee after five days of worship, education, and fellowship,
by nearly 1,500 participants. According to His Eminence Archbishop
Demetrios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, the resolutions
are "very significant because they deal with burning contemporary issues
like war and peace, poverty and disease, abuse of children, and religious
freedom especially as it relates to the Ecumenical Patriarchate."

The first resolution protests abuse towards children and supports programs
and resources that advance their welfare and their protection from
spiritual, physical and emotional violence. Emphasizing the theme of the
Congress to "Share the Truth of the Gospel and the Love of Christ," the
second resolution calls upon the Archdiocese to work with other communities
of Faith to eliminate illiteracy, alleviate disease, and eradicate poverty
and hunger throughout the world. While the third resolution calls upon
governments and people to help restore peace in the world, the Clergy-Laity
Congress also resolved to intensify efforts to allow the Ecumenical
Patriarchate, the ecumenical center of Orthodoxy throughout the globe, to
exercise its religious freedoms unfettered and without governmental
interference.

A major component of the Clergy-Laity's resolution concerning the Ecumenical
Patriarchate is the Religious Freedom Project that seeks the mobilization of
Orthodox Churches in the United States to ask their respective United States
Senators to sign a letter to President Bush. The document articulates the
crisis in religious freedom that the Ecumenical Patriarchate faces which, if
continued, threatens the survival of this nearly 2000 year old institution
founded by the First Called Apostle of Christ, Andrew, the brother of Peter.
For more information concerning the Religious Freedom Project please visit
the Website of the Order of Saint Andrew at www. archons.org.

The Clergy-Laity Congress is the highest legislative body of the Greek
Orthodox Archdiocese and is convened biennially and presided over by the
Archbishop. It is concerned with all matters, other than doctrinal or
canonical, affecting the life, growth and unity of the Church, the
institutions, finances, administration, educational and philanthropic
concerns and its increasing growing role in the life of the nations of the
Western Hemisphere. The delegates are the pastors and elected lay
representatives of all the parishes of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.